What do Coronal Mass Ejections, Tonsils, and Quantum Mechanics have in Common?

Spring Freshman year! If it could be defined by one thing, it would be my tonsils. Right after finals for my fall semester, my tonsils blew up like balloons. BOOM: Tonsillitis. (Don't google tonsillitis if you are squeamish - trust me). Even to this day, the doctors have no idea why I got it. They tested me for everything in the books: Strepp, Mono, Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, literally anything that they knew caused tonsillitis, and it all came back negative. Apparently, sometimes tonsils just do this without no apparent cause from bacteria or viruses or anything, so in the medical opinion of the many doctors I saw, "my tonsils are just built different."

I had tonsillitis from December 2020 to April 2021, and then I was recovering from my tonsillectomy until the beginning of May. The symptoms of tonsillitis include very large and painful tonsils (the soft tissue things at the back of your mouth, next to your uvula), fever, fatigue, and a really painful throat that makes eating just difficult in general. Below is a picture of me in the hospital in April when I finally got my surgery.

It made school a lot more difficult than it should have been, especially since I had tonsillitis for basically the entirety of the Spring semester, and it also made other parts of life tough. For example, I lost 15 pounds over this time because it was painful to eat, and my muscle mass dwindled because of this (rip, but I'm back in the gyms now so it's ok). But hey, that didn't stop 'ol brandy boy from school. For the spring semester, I took Classical Mechanics (P24A - A), Quantum Mechanics (P52- A-), Biology (Bio52 - B+), Chemistry (Chem23b - B+), Star Trek (HSA10 - A, also shoutout to Prof Seitz, who is like the best prof ever), Weightlifting (PE84 - P), Chem lab( A), and Linear Algebra (M73 - A). Overall it was 18 credits, which was the max I was allowed to take (despite my best efforts to take more), and I'm extremely happy with how I did. I'm also very on-track for my major plan, so everything is looking good academically.

Other than academics, I also got my dream job! I got hired by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) to do Astrophysics research on Coronal Mass Ejections! Right now, my position is a "Physicist Trainee," and it comes with a ton of benefits, too. The way the program is set up, if I do well and they want to take me on, they can hire me straight out of college to work for them and make some really good money. Furthermore, if I choose to take them up on the offer, they will pay for my college as long as I promise to work for them for a while after college. It's a pretty sweet deal. I haven't taken them up on the offer to pay for my college, but overall it is just really good to know that I have well-paying options. At least I have an option for a secure future, and right now it's looking like a pretty nice one.

That's mostly it for the spring semester, I think. I was pretty darn busy with tonsillitis, school, and the NRL stuff, so I didn't do much else.

Now it's time for summer! Covid restrictions are lessened, and I've got some stuff on my plate! At Mudd, I'm taking Differential Equations (M82), Materials Engineering (E86), and Scientific Computing (M164). I'm also doing my NRL research, and I even got a job at the Harvey Mudd Weightroom, which in my mind is like the best job ever. According to Dean Chris, I'm filling in for this other guy named Jonathan whenever he can't make it, so I guess I'm training to be his replacement when he graduates. Life is looking good.

Oh, and here's my schedule for the fall: E79, P111 (Theoretical Mechanics), P117 (Statistical Mechanics), M180 (Partial Differential equations), Math131 (Real Analysis), and Theatre 084. 18 credits total. The deans wouldn't let me take 19 credits so I could take E4 (can you believe that?!), so I'm stuck with 18 credits. However, it still is a lot of of math, physics, and engineering, so I'm sure I'm gonna like it a lot. I just hope my theater class isn't too hard. It's supposed to be about graphic projection, so it's the biggest mystery on my schedule. I feel like that class is going to make or break my fall semester.

And that's what's been going on. As a final note, I can't believe how many views my other blog posts have gotten!!! Like it went from 9 to like 70, which is pretty crazy. Anyway, Brandon out.